The present invention relates to apparatus and/or process for assisting the driver in avoiding contact of a vehicle with an obstacle.
A published Japanese patent application Pub. No. JP 2000-357299 A (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 6,571,176B1) shows a vehicle control system for avoiding a forward obstacle. When there is a possibility of collision of the vehicle with an obstacle (such as an oncoming vehicle), this control system calculates a steering torque to avoid a collision (lateral movement), and controls an actuator in accordance with the calculated steering torque. Moreover, when the driver performs a steering operation, the control system performs an automatic steering operation by adding a control quantity for avoiding the collision to a control quantity for an electric power steering control for assisting the driver's steering operation.